June 17, 2004
Dear Everyone:
Happy Father’s Day to all you Dads out there.
Things got very busy at work last week. The Operating Company that I work for is called BRES. That stands for “Boring and Really Expensive Services”. It’s the “Really Expensive” part that is suddenly on tumble-dry.
Back at the beginning of last year, the infamous Cost Reduction Study began. One of the ways they decided to reduce costs was to reduce the number of buildings being managed. In “Hobby”, the Company has six or seven buildings (believe me when I say we’re not always sure how many buildings there are). Some originally belonged to Another Company, some to That Other Company, some to Company.
There’s a lot of baggage connected to these
buildings. What used to be
That Other Company
There’s a little company called
Enron that was having a
bit of a fire sale.
Word has it, BRES picked up one of their office towers for a
song. Of course, no one is
calling it “the
This could lead to confusion. When someone is told, “We’re moving you to Louisiana,” they might get the idea that they’re moving out of state instead of only a few blocks uptown. Ultimately, there will be three buildings in the “Hobby” area.
All of this involves a tremendous amount of communication and collaboration. Within departments, between departments, and between departments and people who work outside the Company. Naturally, they want everyone to use the new document management system.
Naturally, no one wants to take the time to learn how to use the system. In fact, at one point, I was told to cobble up some kind of “30-minute training” for people so they wouldn’t have to “waste” time getting an ID set up. This turned around and bit certain people in the butt.
So last week, they decided to change directions.
Suddenly certain members of the “Space Standards” team were
informed that they would be
Subject
Matter Experts in the document management system.
(Subject Matter Expert is abbreviated to SME, pronounced “smee”.)
It would be up to them to answer any and all document management
system questions coming from all the other team members.
(These SMEs, by the way, are all outside contractors, hired for a
few months.) Their reaction?
Management also decided to set up (I kid you not) a “Demilitarized Zone”, or DMZ, that both internal and external people could access. All of this was set up in a matter of days. We Training Coordinators were informed that we would be providing intense hand-holding for the newly-minted SMEs, plus some kind of training material for the “external” Users.
Hence, a whole lotta running around going on. But enough about that. Movies!
Last weekend “Jeannie” and I saw
What do these two movies have in common?
They’re both now showing.
They both start with a “T”.
The title doesn’t really tell you what the movie is about.
The Day After
Tomorrow. The title is
ambiguous enough.
Dennis Quaid
plays a
paleo-climatologist.
That’s someone who studies ancient climates.
Sela Ward
plays his very understanding and compassionate wife who happens to
specialize in children with cancer.
Ian Holm
plays a very nice
meteorologist who happens to be in
Quaid is the first to figure out that something very strange is happening to the weather. He tries to warn people. They don’t listen. The Scottish meteorologist understands, but is too far away to be any help. Tidal waves, big storms, hail the size of Volkswagens. Really, really big storms viewed from space.
That’s where the kettle drums come in. Every time there’s a shot of a really, really big storm, the composer throws in kettle drums to let everyone know that something really, really bad is happening. Otherwise, you might think “fluffy big clouds, how much trouble can they be?”
Quaid’s son has gone to
As for
He fights, he runs and jumps, he has that whole
“dipped in the River Styx”
thing working for him.
Actually, he’s just a tiny bit self-absorbed.
Lots and lots of big battles, although the war barely lasts a
week, much less ten years.
That’s where the kettle drums come into it.
Big battles mean lots of kettle drums.
And yes, there’s
Helen and
But the one to watch is Agamemnon, played by Brian Cox. You may not recognize the name, or the actor for that matter, but you’ve probably seen him. He’s been working for many years, but never insisted on starring roles (although he did play Hannibal Lecter long before Anthony Hopkins). I remember one Saturday afternoon when I happened to see two movies that both had Cox in them. In the first, he played an upper-level Scottish servant in the Eighteenth Century. In the second, he played a Southern Senator.
The Day After Tomorrow is a really good movie to see on a really hot summer afternoon. You’ll love all that ice.
Love, as always,
Pete
PS. No
Letter next week. I’ll be
attending the ARMA
Pacific Region Leadership
Conference.
P.
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